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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Market Summary -- 21st May 14

FTSE STI closed 3,261.78, down 3.69 points or -0.11% with a total volume of 1.18b and a total value of S$977M. Total number of advance vs decline was 197 vs 200. Of the 30 component index stocks, 11 closed positive, 7 unchanged and 12 in the red. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-

US markets fell yesterday. Asian bourses were mixed for the day with mostly down. Nikkei -0.23%, SSE +0.84% and HSI +0.01%. STI was in the red throughout but the drop was minimum with thin volume and value. 11 of the 30 index stocks posted gain.

The drop in US markets was due to selling off of small-cap stocks ahead of tonight release of minutes from US Fed FOMC meeting earlier this month. For Asia, Japan released its trade data this morning with export rose 5.1% in April better than expectation. Other than that markets in general were directionless.

The lack of events caused STI to drop in thin volume as short-term traders and punters closed position. However, the mid and small caps stocks were doing different thing. A rally for those mid and small caps stocks could be on the card by end of this month before broader market pull back.